This invention relates to a gaming apparatus, and more specifically, to a gaming apparatus capable of tracking player actions.
A gaming apparatus, for example as maybe located in a casino, allows a customer of the casino to play one or more games, such as poker, blackjack, slots, keno, and bingo. A customer typically approaches a gaming apparatus, and selects a desired game from the games offered on the gaming apparatus. Upon selection of the desired game, that game appears on the gaming apparatus, at which time the customer is allowed to play.
During play, the customer places a wager, and proceeds with the selected game. For example, where the customer is playing slots, a lever may be pulled to spin the reels. The reels then stop on various symbols, which determines the customer""s payout for that spin, after which the customer may place another wager and proceed as discussed above. Where the customer has selected to play blackjack or poker, the player may hit a xe2x80x9cdeal cardxe2x80x9d button to deal out the cards for the respective card game. The customer may alter his wager during the particular hand based on which cards are dealt, and in some card games, replace cards, or continue to request cards. After all replacements and/or requests are made, a payout is determined, and the player may continue by placing another wager and playing a new hand.
Playing the games requires many actions (motions) on the part of a customer, most of which are repetitive motions. It takes a customer time to proceed with their motions, whether they be motions for game selection at the beginning of a gamming session, or placing/changing wager amounts. To alleviate repetitive motions, some gaming apparatuses automatically set the wager amount to the previous amount wager. However, the previous wager amount is not always desired by customers, as various game circumstances may be considered in placing a wager, such as payout amount, amount of credits remaining in the gaming apparatus, whether the customer is experiencing a winning or losing streak, etc.
In accordance with the invention, a gaming apparatus is provided including a display apparatus that is capable of generating video images, a value input device that is capable of allowing the player to deposit a medium of value, and a controller operatively coupled to the display apparatus and the value input device. The controller includes a processor and a memory operatively coupled to the processor, where the controller is programmed to allow the player to make a wager, and the controller is programmed to cause a sequence of video images to be generated on the display apparatus after the value input device detects deposit of value by the player where the sequence of video images represents the game. The controller is further programmed to monitor actions by a player during use of the gaming apparatus, where the controller is programmed to determine a potential game parameter based on the monitored actions, and operate the gaming apparatus and display images on the display apparatus responsive to the determined potential game parameter.
In one embodiment, the controller is programmed to monitor the player""s previous wagers, and determine the likely current wager value for the player as the potential game parameter, where the controller is programmed to display the likely current wager value on the display apparatus. In another embodiment, the controller is programmed to monitor the player""s previous game selections and determine the likely current game selection for the player as the potential game parameter. Here, the controller is programmed to display video images corresponding to a likely current game selection for the player on the display apparatus. In yet another embodiment, the controller is programmed to monitor the player""s privilege level actions, and to determine the player privilege level from the monitored privilege level actions as the potential game parameter, where the controller is programmed to display the pay table for the player corresponding to the player privilege level on the display apparatus.
In another embodiment, the controller is further programmed to generate an explanation message and to display the explanation message on the display apparatus, where the explanation message provides an explanation to the player for the operation of the gaming apparatus and the displaying of information on the display apparatus responsive to the potential game parameter.
In another embodiment, the determined potential game parameter represents a likely action for the player based on the plurality of monitored player actions.
In yet another embodiment, the controller is programmed to determine the likelihood factor that the potential game parameter is a desired action for the player, where the controller is programmed to operate the gaming apparatus and to display information on the display apparatus responsive to the determined likelihood factor. In a further embodiment, the controller is programmed to provide threshold likelihood factor functionality, where the controller is programmed to operate the gaming apparatus and to display information on the display apparatus responsive to the determined likelihood factor exceeding a predetermined threshold.
In another embodiment, the controller is programmed to monitor a plurality of sets of player actions, where the controller determines a plurality of potential game parameters, each of the potential game parameters being based on one of the sets of monitored actions. The controller is programmed to operate the gaming apparatus and display information on the display apparatus responsive to the plurality of determined potential game parameters. In a further embodiment, the controller is programmed to determine a plurality of likelihood factors, where each likelihood factor corresponds to one of the plurality of potential game parameters and represents a likelihood that the corresponding potential game parameter is the desired action for the player. The controller is further programmed to select the potential game parameter having the highest likelihood factor, where the controller is programmed to operate the gaming apparatus and to display information on the display apparatus responsive to the selected potential game parameter. In a further embodiment yet, the controller is programmed to resolve conflicts between selected potential game parameters having an equal likelihood factor of being the desired action for the player. Such conflict resolution may occur based on a priority corresponding to each potential game parameter, wherein the potential game parameters having both the highest likelihood factor and the highest priority is selected by the controller when there are more than one potential game parameter having the highest likelihood factor.
The features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in view of the detailed description of various embodiments, which is made with reference to the drawings, a brief description of which is provided below.